Chug Your Trophy: The Fantastic Fest Award Winners

The Fantastic Fest Awards ceremony took place the night before last, and because I was out in Austin getting drunk and pretending to be working, I was in attendance. (I paid my own way, incidentally. My Uproxx expense account is just an index card with a drawing of a cat and “IOU?” scrawled in crayon.)

Alamo Drafthouse/Drafthouse Films honcho Tim League (above right), wearing a powder blue leisure suit, fresh off his trouncing at the hands of Keanu Reeves’ stunt coordinator Tiger Chen in a boxing match at the Fantastic Debates two nights prior, presented the awards, which were a mug of Shiner that the winners were expected to chug onstage. That the winners not only had to chug a beer but were expected to take a knee while doing so (tip over your empty when you’re done and bow your head in remembrance of Blowjob Stacey, RIP) should be enough to tell you that the event couldn’t have been more FilmDrunk relevant if it’d been planned inside my own brain (preferably by German Shepherds in birthday hats). I’m already campaigning to be the designated chugger for teetotalers next year. It’s the least I can do.

When these are the kinds of people putting on an awards show, the winners are worth knowing, especially if your idea of quality film goes beyond the white ladies solving racism and dyslexic holocaust orphans learning the cello you hear about at the Oscars.

So, here they are:

AUDIENCE AWARD (Presented by Maxwell Locke & Ritter)

Jodorowsky’s Dune (director Frank Pavich)

“NEXT WAVE” SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION PRESENTED BY DELL PRECISION

Best Picture: The Dirties (director Matt Johnson)

Best Director: Oren Carmi (Goldberg and Eisenberg)

Best Screenplay: James Byrkit (Coherence)

Best Actor: Yorick van Wageningen (The Resurrection Of A Bastard)

Best Actress: Swantje Kohlhof (Nothing Bad Can Happen)

Wiley Wiggins, from Dazed and Confused, presenting the videogame award

FANTASTIC FEATURES

Best Picture: The Congress (director Ari Folman)

Best Director: David Perrault (Our Heroes Died Tonight)

Best Screenplay: Ari Folman (The Congress)

Best Actor: Svein André Hofsø Myhre (Detective Downs)

Best Actress: Robin Wright (The Congress)

HORROR FEATURES

Best Picture: Afflicted (directors Derek Lee and Clif Prowse)

Best Screenplay: Derek Lee and Clif Prowse (Afflicted)

Best Director: Derek Lee and Clif Prowse (Afflicted)

Best Actor: Jason David Brown (Septic Man)

Best Actress: Julia Garner (We Are What We Are)

Elijah Wood, a surprisingly enthusiastic chugger for a guy wearing a bow tie.

GUTBUSTER COMEDY FEATURES

Best Picture: Why Don’t You Play In Hell (director Sion Sono)

Best Director: Sion Sono (Why Don’t You Play In Hell)

Best Screenplay: Kankurô Kudô (Maruyama The Middle Schooler)

Best Actor: Fuku Suzuki (Kid’s Police)

Best Actress: Qi Shu (Journey To the West: Conquering The Demon)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Best Picture: Jodorowsky’s Dune (director Frank Pavich)

Best Director: Shaul Schwarz (Narco Cultura)

SHORT FUSE: HORROR SHORTS

Winner: Remember Me (director Jean-François Asselin)

Runner-up: Perfect Drug (director Toon Aerts)

Bumper competition winner Jacob Gentry, who happened to be sitting next to me (and a FilmDrunk reader).

FANTASTIC SHORTS

Winner: Beasts In The Real World (director Sol Friedman)

Runner-up: My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain (director Adam Hall)

DRAWN AND QUARTERED: ANIMATED SHORTS

Winner: “The Sad House” (director Sofia Catalina Carrillo Ramírez)

Runner-up: “Kick-Heart” (director Masaaki Yuasa)

FANTASTIC ARCADE

Best In Show: Samurai Gunn (developed by Technopants)

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(Photo credit: David Hill)

I’ll have reviews for a number of these coming up (Why Don’t You Play in Hell, Detective Downs, and Narco Cultura all today or tomorrow), but in the meantime, you can check out the full program here, and some assorted trailers below.

We Are What We Are is a “remake” of a Mexican film (Somos lo que hay) but appears to use only the basic premise, while changing everything else (urban setting to rural, genders of the main characters, and so so forth). I do like Michael Parks, however.

Actually, the punch in the face should go to Elijah for spilling a shit ton of Shiner. As a former resident of Texas now living in a Shiner free state it pains me to see a drop of my favorite Bock wasted.